"Delusion
injures others, brings hardship to oneself, soils the mind,
and may well lead to hell."Anonymous (found in Microsoft Encartaģ Deluxe
Encyclopedia 2002).

Why
do people spend SO much time online fabricating stories and being generally disruptive?

As you navigate through this site,
you'll find many references to the Usenet newsgroup alt.freemasonry where so
many of those seeking attention seem to congregate. Some of
them will tell lies - repeatedly and
usually quite deliberately - but yet
will become indignant and abusive when their deceit
is exposed. Many of them make ridiculous and often downright
nasty claims and yet, will berate Masons for not having been more friendly and
welcoming to them. Accusations of "stalking" and
"harassment" are sometimes hurled at Masons (especially
this site's author) when it
is noted that they have used the same tired arguments and have been corrected
multiple times in the past. They want, it seems, to have you
forget their prior comments and accept that their behavior is
now as pure as the driven snow.
Could they really have forgotten that they'd been corrected in the past? Will
they apologize now when being corrected yet again? Don't hold your breath,
folks: disruption and/or garnering attention - often denied - seems to be the name of the game for these
folks.

Many of these internet
'identities' will also attempt to retaliate against
Masons who 'dare' confront them by
complaining to internet service providers, lodges, and wherever they think they
might be able to have their way. They'll rail against Masons who, they
assert, are 'stalking' their often pseudononymous postings and
will sometimes even post
personal and family information about
the Masons who confront them.
It's a bizarre world.

Keeping up-to-date on the various
'characters' who inhabit the alt.freemasonry newsgroup on a day-to-day basis is
not only futile but a waste of time that could otherwise be spent enjoying life.
Although some Masons do spend recreational opportunities reading and responding
on USENET, it's not as addictive as it seems to be for
Freemasonry's detractors. The disruptors seem to gain great
pleasure in posting dozens and sometimes hundreds of screeds berating
Masons (and, perhaps tangentially, Masonry).

Because 'you can't tell the players
without a program', this page has been created as a snapshot just to mention
those who usually make the most noise. We'll update it on an irregular
basis when major shifts in the 'players' occur.

We'll do this in chronological order....

2005

"Steve" - Continuing
along with his periodic cross-postings, this individual has
stated that he will save the world from Freemasonry.
It appears that he intends to accomplish this by doing a cut and paste of pages from websites
into the alt.freemasonry newsgroup. Most 'regulars' have had his nonsense
killfiled by now so there's little if any response to his screeds. Of particular
note is the fact that "Steve" or "Stevez" doesn't believe in
the inerrancy of the King James Version of the Bible, citing instead a firm
attachment to the Geneva Bible being the ONLY correct Bible. That SO many of
those whom he quotes are rabid defenders of the literal interpretation of the
King James 1611 Bible to the exclusion of any/all others and consider anyone not
in agreement with them to be lying heretics, there's a really humorous situation
here, one that has been pointed out to "Steve" several times but one
which he chooses to ignore in his attempts to denigrate
Masons. It's also pretty
humorous that one of "Stevez"'s ongoing rants against Freemasonry is
that they 'keep secrets' and - according to him - anyone who keeps a secret is a
liar. He's been requested to identify himself MANY times but
ignores such requests. Apparently he doesn't recognize the dichotomy created by his use of a pseudonym to
keep his identity a secret!

Jon Riley also known as
"Granite Stone"
- This individual came to our attention several years ago when we first
began this site. At that time, he would intermittently post cut-and-paste
screeds to the alt.freemasonry newsgroup related to 'renouncing Freemasonry'. In
his present incarnation, he babbles endlessly about kleenex-boxes,
seances, and how he's able to observe everything from clues in movies. Mr. Riley
signs his posts with "Black Watch" -
but, as is typical in the whacky world of anti-Masonry, he's not referring to
Scotland's military unit with a
proud history commanding instant respect. Certainly someone
as bizarre as Mr. Riley wasn't a member, was he? Of
course not! HIS definition of "Black Watch"? "People who watch
black." He also uses "Shadow Watch" - defined, by him,
as "People who watch shadows." Make sense? No? Did you
really expect it to?

Jon at one point took to criticizing the activities of the Toronto Society for
Masonic Research for hosting a renown Masonic researcher to speak at a local
church's facility. Using such persuasive arguments as "All Freemasons are
gay." and "My father was an Orange Order Freemason (Masonicinfo
Note: there's no such thing!) and I can remember him being very
young working at the University of Toronto and he looked like Harrison Ford. 30
years later when he died he looked like Al Copone <sic>."
(ostensibly because of Freemasonry). Mr. Riley - who must be at least 40 if the
above 'remembrance' is to be believed - seems to be a very confused individual.
He is generally ignored. In early May, 2005, he announced
that he had terminal cancer and would be dead in ten days. As of this April 2007,
he's still posting - and we suspect that he'll continue to do so for a long time
to come. Why, oh why, are anti-Masons SUCH liars?

Jason Christie - Like
Mr. Riley and also posting under hundreds of pseudonyms, this individual's posts are
regularly filled with profanity and bizarre stream of unconsciousness blathering.
Imagining himself to be some sort of reptile at times, he invariably cross-posts
on multiple unrelated newsgroups in order to gain attention. Using newsgroups as varied as alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk (don't ask us: we
have NO idea what that's all about) to alt.aviation.disasters,
he appears to have no life other than that of a bizarre
Usenet personality.
Well-known by many all over Usenet for his aberrant and abhorrent behavior, he
has told bizarre and ridiculous stories about himself and reportedly fancies
himself as having been a reptile. He seems to delight in disruption on a grand scale
with Freemasonry as one of
his many targets.

John Weatherly - Apparently
not content cross-posting to five religious newsgroups, Mr. Weatherly
at times will add alt.freemasonry to his repertoire.
In a bizarre encounter in July, 2004 he jumped in on a thread wherein a
poster had made the claim that Freemasonry banned Jesus from the lodge. Because
that post had gone to a half-dozen other groups as well (anti-Masons are
notorious for such games), alt.freemasonry 'regulars' got to meet John Weatherly
who replied, <<THAT part is true. Back in my working days, a co-worker and
Mason tried to recruit me. Only he was a Unitarian atheist. And was totally free
to preach his atheism at Mason meetings, where "all views are
welcome", according to the literature he gave me.>> Now because Mr.
Weatherly uses a 'no archive' notation in his messages, that post is only
available from a contemporaneous second-hand posting shown here.
For Masons, that remark was SO wrong in SO many respects, it's difficult to know
where to begin. John also leaped
forward with an objection to the youth organization DeMolay
sponsored by Freemasonry:

<<Let me explain mine. Without revealing secrets (and thus violate
vows) I know that there are times in the De Molay ritual in which one is
required to "bow to the East." As a Christian since I was 5, the
bowing to the east always bothered me, but I did it. I had brothers and school
chums in De Molay, so I did it. Then I was talking with someone about it, and
I suddenly realized, whether we accept it or not, whether we make the
connection or not, when we bow to the East, that's a form of Sun worship.
Unacceptable. Then I have a problem with vows that require us to "rip out
tongues out," etc. I have spoken with several elders about EXACTLY that
issue and what I have heard is, "John, those vows are just
words.">> (Masonicinfo
Note: There followed more imaginary recollections about the supposed behavior
of one of his Advisors whom he referred to as a 'counselor' - a phrase never
used in DeMolay. Because Mr. Weatherly apparently doesn't want anyone to
see
his ridiculous statements a second time, his
messages are marked 'no archive' to prevent them
from being retained by Google. You can find our contemporaneous
reply to this bizarre claim right
here
though.)

In fact, Mr. Weatherly was challenged on his claims
several times. First, he said that he simply couldn't reveal the ritual
because he had taken an oath not to do so. Asked to provide proof,
though, that the
DeMolay obligations EVER contained anything about
'tongues', he could not and quickly
sought to avoid further discussion on that charge. Advised that adults were welcome to view the
'private' DeMolay ceremonies and thus they were not "secret" as he'd
claimed, he then demurred citing the theft of all of his books in a robbery
(have you EVER heard of a robbery where someone steals BOOKS from a person's
home?) and then his (possibly self-diagnosed) bi-polar disease
as reasons for his non-compliance. You can also see
flashes of Mr. Weatherly's dodge and weave along with his 'potty mouth' in this
message. Bottom line: DeMolay has NEVER required anyone
to "bow to the East" as Mr. Weatherly claims - and we have actual DeMolay
rituals from the time period during which he claims to have been a member to
support this assertion.

As you can see, Mr. Weatherly's ramblings are nothing more than
unsubstantiated babble and his claims have more holes in them than Swiss cheese.
Beyond that, he exhibits what we perceive as a very nasty underside
as shown by his flippant remarks.

Daryl
"Plutonium" Carstensen
returned to the newsgroup after a several year
absence. His prior behavior was 'legendary' enough for his
(then) pseudonym
to be mentioned
in the deHoyos & Morris book, "Is
It True What They Say About Freemasonry?". He came
back because - if you can believe this story - "someone" was using one of
HIS e-mail addresses to post outrageous messages. At first Mr. Carstensen was generally well behaved and respectful,
showing
a degree of maturity not seen during his prior posting
period. As the days passed, however, "Filmnoir"
returned to religious screeds and absurd, oft-refuted charges against
Freemasonry. Obtuse to the point of obstinacy, he seems to blithely ignore
rational explanations while clinging tenaciously to extraordinarily
inflexible positions even when they are completely
self-contradictory.

Readers might also get a chuckle out of
his VERY slow loading website
here containing his
promise of making a video mocking Masonry in 2006. On his site too, he claims that some Freemasons
deny that the all-seeing eye is a Masonic symbol. We've never seen anyone do
that, frankly, because in most jurisdictions it's even part of the ritual
lectures. We think it's just another example of how
Daryl simply doesn't 'get it'. CLUE: The
all-seeing eye - in many, many jurisdictions - is CERTAINLY a Masonic symbol
without any question;
the all-seeing eye AND THE PYRAMID are NOT, however, and we've got a page about that
whole issue right here.

Mr.
Carstensen is mentioned
here, not only because of his prolific posting but
also because he has (for years, apparently) proudly worn a Masonic
ring. He has even made a point of providing this picture! He doesn't seem to understand that jewelry with a group's insignia
should be for MEMBERS of that group and not for those who want to wear it because
'it's pretty'.
In one USENET post he explained "I wear one for artistic and aesthetic
reasons. 10k gold. Onyx". (Click on the graphic for a larger picture.)
A couple of weeks later, he elaborated (with his tortured writing style which
ignores even basic rules of grammar): "Of a truth, I must find
Masonry very fascination <sic>,
why would I have a large shelf of books on Masonry, why would I have Masonic
aprons hanging on my walls, Why would I have for the last 10 years been in and
out of this newsgroup, Why would I have tried to understand Masonry, read about
Masonry, Why have I worn a Masonic ring, It must mean that Masonry means
something to me."

Yet, not even six hours later, when accused of fraud
through misappropriation of Masonic symbols, he wrote "What am I trying to pass myself off
as? Certainly not a Mason, since the Masonic symbols are not unique to Masonry.
To me the square and compass are nothingness then <sic> an artistic symbol that means
whatever one wants it to mean. Don't lay your trip on me trying to say that it's
a Masonic ring. It's not true. and you know it." Can Mr. Carstensen name some other organization in the
past 300 years that has used these symbols in this construct (that is: a
compass oriented as ^ with a square oriented as v overlapping it and a G in the center)? (Masonicinfo
Note: We
had to add the information in parenthesis as Mr. Carstensen apparently didn't
'get it'.) Does he think thousands of jewelers around the world who'd
call what he wears a 'Masonic ring' just don't have his level of knowledge?
Maybe he thinks that a lot of the people wearing Masonic emblems on
a ring (or their car or their t-shirt or ball cap) are NOT Masons but who, like
himself, just 'likes
the design'??? Can he explain
this - or ANY of his many flip-flops of logic? Based on his prolific online behavior, Daryl is
again becoming one of anti-Masonry's most vocal and visible 'representatives', embarrassing as
that may be to them. Unbelievably, he complains that Masons haven't been 'friendly'
enough towards him.... <sigh>

A week after assuring us that he was "fine"
with being listed here, Mr. Carstensen changed his mind. We wondered why he
didn't feel that his anti-Masonic behavior warranted mention particularly
since he was simultaneously doing things like posting to
the alt.freemasonry newsgroup a listing of Famous Masons whom he claimed were
homosexuals. When challenged about such behavior, he claimed that his list was
just 'for discussion'.... He then claimed that he was going to stop posting.
Yet, as is generally SO predictable in USENET,
during the following week he posted hundreds
of messages. He subsequently began flooding US with e-mail in which
he fancies that every phrase on this website is tied somehow to him. After a
decade of scurrilous comments about Masons and Masonry
(including up through the day before changing his mind about being profiled
here and continuing well thereafter), having an anti-Masonic website, promising to make a derogatory
film about Masonry, AND wearing a Masonic ring for whatever bizarre reason,
Daryl apparently feels entitled to a 'do-over'. (And see below....)

As is SO often the case, the behavior of anti-Masons
defies rational or reasonable explanation!

2006

The press of time kept us from being an active participant
in the alt.freemasonry newsgroup most of this year but we kept up with the
often laborious and wasteful reading. "Steve", Jason
Christie and John Weatherly seem to have found something else to do in life but
on 18 April 2006, Jon Riley
announced, in what appeared as a drug-addled post, he had contacted
prior "starships" throughout the eons and that he was dying of cancer. He stated
that his doctor had told him he would be dead by the end of the week (April 21,
2006). True to his aberrant
behavior, it was all a lie and a month later, he was back to his idiotic and
infantile behavior again. This has continued sporadically throughout the balance
of the year and Mr. Riley has, not surprisingly, failed to respond to inquiries
about his previously announced demise.

Mr. Carstensen sent us a message near year end indicating
that he had changed his mind about Freemasonry. His message stated "...I donít
even think or feel that old way and to update you here. I have a friend that is
a Mason, all of this old information you have up on your web site about me is
old and very dated stuff that I donít even believe anymore." Amazing, isn't it?
What a difference a few months can make after several years of ranting - enough so that he was actually mentioned in a book -
but suddenly, things have changed. "When I read this stuff up there that I said
in the past I laugh at how stupid I was, how effected by other writers and other
people in the past I was." and "I donít believe any of this junk that I said
anymore." It's good that Mr. Carstensen can now laugh at his stupidity as
others did for years. Apparently, though, he feels entitled to a 'life do over'.
Interestingly, he has made no public recantation and we can only wonder why. Perhaps after he
has posted messages equal in quantity to those he posted berating Masons and
Masonry in the past, we might consider his epiphany as being legitimate but
until then.
Actually, even HALF that number would keep him busy for a couple of years....

And 2006 continued another year of the bizarre activities
of the pseudonym 'Nena', formerly known as 'Marta'
(second reference here). This
year's claims kept the participants of
alt.freemasonry rolling in laughter at every turn. The funniest claim, though
was made by the sock-puppets 'Michel and Sophi' that
'Marta' had died. Needless to say, they steadfastly refused to provide any
details after they announced that they were "moving" from 'Marta's' house, yet
another pseudonym, 'Nena' appeared with an identical writing style and the
background knowledge that the poor ostensibly deceased 'doctor' had. Funny how
identities seem to arrive with such foreknowledge of events on alt.freemasonry
yet claim to have arrived fresh on the scene. Even more comic is the lies on
which this entire farce is based.... Oh, and about that pseudo-death: no
Canadian newspapers had any announcement of a doctor named 'Marta' dying. Does
that surprise you? Poor Marta / Nena / BeaverFolk or whatever: railing about how
awful this website is because it 'exposes' her hatred. A pseudonym upset: it is
to laugh!

Roy Jose
Lorr made an appearance again with his inimitable style while episodically,
a troll from Edmunton, Canada has 'carpet bombed' the newsgroup with hundreds of huge
screeds copied and pasted directly from other websites. Although he has publicly
posted his name regularly, we won't even give him the satisfaction of being
mentioned here. After the first couple
of his posts, you'll simply put this one in the kill file. Don't try to
understand it: you might think he's written something but, in reality, he
hasn't. Ostensibly a laborer on construction projects, this individual fancies
himself as having been a trained assassin and he often lashes out against an
individual he identifies as having taught him spycraft. He's set up a section on
MSN where his misspellings abound and where purloined material exists in
profusion. Apparently the only reason the site isn't shut down is that the stuff
he's stealing gives the whacko authors more publicity which they gloat on. It's
like looking down the rabbit hole....

And last but not least is 'Satchel' who arrived at
alt.freemasonry with tedious ramblings about the evils of - who else? - the
perennial whipping boy Albert Pike. Of course, it was quickly noted that while
'Satch' was posting things to alt.freemasonry ostensibly about Freemasonry, he
was off on several unrelated religious newsgroups (alt.catholic, alt.baptist,
alt.pentacostal just to name a few) wailing about the fact that a candidate for
governor in Alabama belonged to the Masons whom he identified as being racist.
Interestingly, on alt.freemasonry he was presenting himself as a Mason but - as
is usual when someone is behaving unMasonically - refused to disclose his
identity. In fact, 'Satchy' seemed quite indignant that he was found to have
been posting totally different rants elsewhere on Usenet. He has been prodigious in posting, arguing ceaselessly about the validity of
Pike's writing and insisting that everyone was wrong but himself. He writes
that he understands and accepts legitimate explanations and then a few messages
later will dismiss that which he had just accepted or write as if he had never
heard it. Substituting his own bizarre beliefs for reality (no one on
alt.freemasonry knows about the rituals he experienced because they aren't from
Alabama, for example), his claims to being a Mason were laughable. Often using
religious arguments, he has admitted that he simply doesn't attend church and is
of 'no particular denomination'. He stated that he hasn't attended church for 17
years because of his work schedule. Apparently none of the several hundred
churches in Birmingham, Alabama have any type of activity except during his working
hours. Nevertheless, he preaches his religious views unceasingly and expects
that everyone will accept them as being fact. It's so very typical of those
described on this site as 'religious intolerants': they're upset because
everyone doesn't accept their faith beliefs and yet, when examined, they have no
basis in training or experience (in this case, having no training in theological
matters and, in fact, not even bothering to attend any type of Church service)
but will argue with their dying breath that THEY have the right answers about
religious matters. (In the case of 'Satchel', he also exhibits his bizarre
know-it-all behavior by arguing about things like dividing by zero. A railroad
worker trying to prove how much he knows about.... You get the picture!)

On frequent occasions, 'Satchel' has shown himself to be
extraordinarily bigoted towards those of faiths other than the unspecified
'Christian' one he claims for himself. As an example, he stated "Here is an
analogy. You join the U.S. Marines, then one day you think that you will begin
to practice your Muslim faith and chant "death to America". Can we
spell 'xenophobia'? He has argued ad nauseum that in the Master Mason degree he was
'resurrected'. After writing that he now understands he was wrong in his
interpretation, he'll return a couple of days later to repeat the charge all
over again.

His blurted admissions have shown much about his
character. Why did he (supposedly) join? Candidly (despite lots of subsequent back peddling)
he wrote: "I was inspired by the fact that Masonic brothers stick together and I
thought I might need a favor one of these days, since my lifestyle was not lilly
white. Perks like getting a speeding ticket fixed or any favor a brother Mason
could "reasonably" provide without harm." He's also been proud to say that he's
employed by the railroad in Alabama and bragged that regardless of how poor his
job performance, he cannot be fired. Curiously, he claimed to not be able to
remember the name/number of his lodge and when that claim was met with peals of
laughter and derision by Masons online, he proclaimed that he was a Viet Nam
veteran. When the comparison to the two was made, he was strangely silent about
his claimed service. (Masons and REAL veterans find such
things laughable in the extreme.) At the end of 2006, 'Satchel' was demanding
that Masons PROVE he was a member of a Birmingham Lodge in order to "restore <his>
honor" while concurrently having 'chats' in public messages with the pseudonym 'Nena'
about how awful the Masons are. Admittedly receiving NO attention anywhere else he posted, he's
become a fixture for the time being in the alt.freemasonry newsgroup. For 'Satchel' whose
'drama queen' outbursts are often hilarious in their absurdity, and who seems
totally incapable of telling the truth (i.e., he'll concede that a Mason is
right and then a week later start with the same, tired argument that was
previously addressed), alt.freemasonry apparently
offers the attention and 'recognition' he desperately seems to
crave and apparently has never had in real life - although, absurdly, such 'recognition' extends only to his pseudonym!
Oh, and by the way: all of Satchy's messages now are marked "No Archive = Yes"
so that his outbursts and obtuseness won't be forever held in Google's bosom. Too bad
- but we've saved them all so there's no problem.... <grin>

Looks to be another year of 'same-old, same-old'. Spring
in the Northern latitudes found Satchel dropping out of site. A Masonic
conspiracy perhaps or the realization that his lame attempts to prove that
everybody was out of step but him were no longer interesting if he could not
influence a local election. The ever-present Nena, after a torrid
mutual-affection grope with
Charles Douglas Wehner, didn't get her desired pity-party as she announced
she was off to have a major operation. In fact, no one even blinked it
seemed.... What was that fairy-tale about crying wolf???

Moving towards summer (convert this if you're south of the
Equator!), Sam Moser was back killing electrons in the millions and wearing out
his 666 calculator while Raymond Karczewski chose the two closely-related
newsgroups of alt.freemasonry and alt.gossip.celebrites to share his sovereign
citizen theories that have landed SO many others in prison. Mr. Karczewski has
been an active supporter of anti-Mason and now infamous tax evader
Ed Brown.

And as we passed the half-way point of the year, the
pseudonym known as 'Marta' (formerly known as Nena, BeaverFolk and numerous
others - second reference here)
began a 'bleeding hearts' moan about her ostensible health problems. No mention,
of course, of the surgeons who were such good friends, they'd house sat and even
posted to alt.freemasonry for some time on her behalf. Her sole point of
affinity was with Charles Wehner,
the fellow who single-handedly stopped world-wide inflation. (Wonder why he
hasn't stepped in to use his super-powers again? <shrug>). Good ol' Charles
warned her of the evil Masonic doctors (despite his complete ignorance of her
physical whereabouts) while she continued to troll for sympathy. She whined
about unspecified problems and medical mysteries but received scant sympathy:
the phrase 'crying wolf once too often' seems to have relevance here. Then, in
another apparent ruse (remember that this is a person who claimed to have had
friends mysteriously killed and Masons staking out her house), another identity
using her account posted as "Nena's Friend" to announce that she had had her
surgery but passed away from complications. Masons, having seen this account be
used for fantastic changes of identity previously, were skeptical, not only
because - as one of the replies noted - "Nena" had stated that "Marta" had
passed away previously. And further, why would someone be posting as "Nena's
Friend" if, in fact, the ostensible decedent was named "Marta"? Too
complicated.... but you can enjoy the whole saga
here. The ostensible (using that word a lot here, aren't we? For a
reason....) obituary notice was, with some investigation, located at the website
of Saskatoon, Canada, newspaper. That obituary was curious both for what it said
and what it didn't say:

MROZ -Marta born in Poland on January 1, 1942
passed away peacefully with her son at her side at Royal University Hospital
on Thursday, August 2, 2007 due to complications after surgery. She is
sorely missed by her friends and family. An informal memorial gathering will
be held on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. at 1223 Main Street.
Funeral arrangements C/O <funeral home name redacted>

Didn't the pseudonym 'Marta' write that her son had died a
couple of years ago? Oh, and what happened to the many claims that she was a
physician? Gosh, that's a bit of a large omission, isn't it? Needless to say,
there were no condolences in the 'Remembrance Book' on the last day the obituary
was publicly available. It's now retrievable for a fee at
this address but you've got the full text (without the picture!) above. Most
alt.freemasonry regulars await another return of this oft-morphing identity. If,
on the other hand, this really is true and this person who had for so many
months instigated dissent online, it is rather pitiful that her many lies were
stripped away while her noxious paranoia and accusations caused her to receive
no sympathy whatsoever from the few people with whom she seemed to keep contact.
Curiously too, Mr. Wehner was noticeably silent, apparently only interested in
her support of his own rhetoric which she regularly provided. The anonymous "Nena's
Friend" closed their participation in a huff. We guess it wasn't her invisible
surgeon friends Michel and Sophi who were SO familiar with all of the posters
online and only stopped chatting because Marta had returned home to disrupt
their house-sitting gig. It was also noted that the obituary indicated a date of
birth of January 1 while she herself claimed to have been born on
September 20th. It's all pretty pathetic: she made herself into an object of
absurdity and continued the charade even unto - perhaps - death. We express our
sympathy to her (apparently not deceased?) son who may not have been aware of
this bizarre behavior on the part of his mother.

Much of the alt.freemasonry absurdity seems to be moving
to comments made on various blogs at this juncture. In 2008, we may shift our
coverage to that venue since it's yet another location where sanity seems
painfully absent.

2008

Usenet seems to have become a thing of the past. As we've
moved forward through 2008 it has become apparent that the use of a text-based
system where anyone can post anything has precious little appeal to anyone. In
July/August, many internet service providers announced that they would soon
discontinue carrying newsgroups, decisions which certainly make sense based on
limited usage, seemingly worthless content, and cross-posting to dozens of
unrelated groups of simple screeds. As a result of this, we will likely
discontinue our ongoing reporting of individual usenet posters. There are many
bloggers who will toss in a zinger against Freemasonry from time to time, either
out of ignorance or stupidity, but these have been far less pervasive than the
usenet denizens of days gone-bye. It's the end of an era in Masonophobia, it
would seem.

Those not familiar with newsgroups may be unfamiliar with the term
"nick" or "sock puppet". Here's a brief explanation:

A 'nick' or nickname is how one appears in their messages
and/or forum and blog posts. Very few use their own
name but a goodly number do this in order to 'express their feelings' and,
truthfully, avoid accountability for their often ridiculous claims. Those
who want to keep their identity private will assume a 'nick' different from
their own name. Those who want to deceive will simply create multiple pseudonyms, shifting from one to another, sometimes sequentially
(apparently unable to keep things straight if they don't do it that way) and sometimes without limit.

A "sock puppet" is generally just another "nick" that has
been created by the poster but instead of using his earlier
pseudonym, he'll post under another 'identity' in support of the original poster's
(his own) claim/charge/whatever. John will
write, "Masons are all snake killers." and within a short period of
time, a previously unknown poster (we'll call him "Jerry") will arrive
to say, "That's true. You're so right, John."

Is this a bit childish? It's like holding a paper mask in front of your face
and pretending to be someone else.... That's just part of the everyday infantile
behavior found on online and is particularly seen with those
attempting to prop up the 'fake
Masonry' groups.

And lest anyone make any assumptions, those named here are not the only provocateurs (or nuisances): they're simply
those who were pretty 'regular' and often the most prolific.

Updated May and December, 2006
and a bit more in April, 2007 with changes in August, 2008.

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